I wake up at 7 a.m., slide into my slippers, and pull up the window shade. Yellow light streams into our room.

My roommate has already walked to breakfast, leaving me to listen to NPR on my clock-radio and pack up my book bag.

I walk the minute to breakfast in JA dining hall. The sun rises above Cummings Arts Center and casts light across Tempel Green, now a wintery plain of fluorescent white. In the distance, a church steeple pricks the skyline. The Thames River hangs behind the steeple as the backdrop of a set.

The scene and the sun energize me. On my way into the dining hall, I pick up the New York Times, then plop down at our usual table. I take a sip of my coffee; my roommate’s friend joins us. She reads her German textbook and digs into a stack of blueberry pancakes. On the way out, I fill up my thermos with apple cinnamon tea.

It is 8 o’clock when I enter New London Hall. I climb up to the third story and choose a table facing the glass wall. Light pours in and I look out. I still see the Thames, still the steeple. People begin to walk around on the sidewalks below. I sit high above, enjoying the silence and the stillness and a day started off just right.